Join the Medieval Colloquium October 10 at 5pm in HQ 276 in welcoming Emma Maggie Solberg. Professor Solberg teaches British medieval literature and culture, from Beowulf to Skelton. Her research interests include early English drama and the cult of the Virgin Mary. Her monograph, Virgin Whores (2018), uncovers a surprisingly prevalent theme in late English medieval literature and culture: the celebration of the Virgin Mary’s sexuality. Although history is narrated as a progressive loss of innocence, the Madonna has grown purer with each passing century. Looking to a period before the idea of her purity and virginity had ossified, Solberg uncovers depictions and interpretations of Mary, discernible in jokes and insults, icons and rituals, prayers and revelations, allegories and typologies—and in late medieval vernacular biblical drama.